TSM for Peter Pan?

[KPeveler]

I was thinking today (work = very boring) and I wonder if disney could construct something like they do with handicapped cars for Toy Story Mania for Peter Pan... Have a special "ship" which can lower to the group and allow people to transfer on (maybe not be wc accessible since it lefts up again, i am not sure), and then it can "slide" back into its spot in line. it would mean there can be only one coming out of line really, and you would have to wait for that spot to come all the way back around, but that may be a way for them to make it accessible...

i am VERY bored at work, and i guess the "imagineer" section of my brain is the one working right now!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I was thinking today (work = very boring) and I wonder if disney could construct something like they do with handicapped cars for Toy Story Mania for Peter Pan... Have a special "ship" which can lower to the group and allow people to transfer on (maybe not be wc accessible since it lefts up again, i am not sure), and then it can "slide" back into its spot in line. it would mean there can be only one coming out of line really, and you would have to wait for that spot to come all the way back around, but that may be a way for them to make it accessible...

i am VERY bored at work, and i guess the "imagineer" section of my brain is the one working right now!

Having worked Peter Pan, I can tell you that it is not possible with the current configuration of the ride for several reasons:
1.) There is no room to put it, they would have to completely reconfigure the track and the entrance
2.) We cannot even stop the moving belt to load guests with disabilities due to the violent nature of the stop. We are only to stop it in an emergency.
3.) Peter Pan is very old, and any time you take an old ride and retrofit it with something like that it costs a lot of money and greatly increases the chances the ride will malfunction. This is especially bad on Peter Pan because we cannot evacuate it if it gets stuck, the fire department has to do it.

 

[Schmeck]

I've never actually looked up to see how the vehicle attaches to the ride mechanism, but since the vehicle is carried from above, I would think it would be very tricky (and potentially dangerous) to have a vehicle that was made to come off the mechanism. There's that potential that it wouldn't be fastened back on properly and the vehicle could fall off in the ride itself.

 

[KPeveler]

i was thinking of it running off a different track, like suspended coasters do, not actually completely detaching... i think really there just needs to be a massive refurb with this taken into consideration... this is one of the few truly popular rides that is not accessible at all, so i hope they refurb this one soon!

 

[OneLittleSpark]

Hmmm... interesting idea... *puts on Engineering hat*. It would be feasible with a track switch, similar to those used in railway systems, but it would need to be a fairly sturdy set up to survive the beating it would get in normal use. As Butterfly said, it would involve a fair bit of work and money, and the loading area would need to be redesigned to make space, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done. I have a friend who's been doing a project on suspended track rides, so I'll see what she thinks.

Great thought though K, it would be wonderful if they could make this system work with Pan! Just as long as Disney didn't take the refurb as an excuse to completely 'redevelop' the entire ride, the way they are with Small World in DLR Anyway, that's and I shan't drag this thread in that direction! Back to your regularly scheduled programming

 

[dclfun]

Since now living in a power w/c I have to say that this is the attraction I miss the most. I LOVED riding this when my little ones were little ones and am so glad I have those memories. But I'll never get to make a memory with my grandson.---Kathy

 

[KPeveler]

eh, it was worth a shot i know that sometimes people who just might possibly work for disney sometimes read these, so i am hoping they see how much we would ALL love this ride to be more accessible!!

 

[mechurchlady]

I know the Disneyland stop was very rough. It sound like a great WDW idea but where do you put the new loading area and line? WDW's Fantasyland is old and pre ADA. It is a nice idea and in theory could work but the cost of the retrofitting, adding a loading dock, reconfiguring lines just would not work. I would love to ride Peter Pan without setting inches above the floor as it was hard for me to squat down and get back up.

Great idea and I wish it was possible.

 

[terri01p]

You don't know how much I wish this was possible...

 

[mechurchlady]

You don't know how much I wish this was possible...

I know very much as there was times at DLR when I rode Pan and felt like calling for a tow truck. It was one of my favourites even though I knew that stops were hard at times and that if it ever had to evac that I would have to go down a ladder and I still have not changed light bulbs because of ladders. not getting my past first rung. I still rode often. I also made sure AAA was paid for.

I do not remember riding but know I did.

 

[Absimilliard]

The main issue with adding such an alternate station is space. Fantasyland is pretty tight already with walking space and attractions are pretty compact.

As for the ride system, they could at least consider changing it to something like the Disneyland Paris Peter Pan's Flight, where the boats are composed of 2 rows and stop in the station.

 

[cmwade77]

No, at WDW Fantasyland is not tight, they have TONS of rom.....At DL, parts of Fantasyland is tight, but still not bad.

I think it might be time for a major overhaul of both Fantasylands though, basically moving everything around (or a lot of it) and rebuilding all of the rides and entrances, bringing them up to modern technology, while maintaing the escence of the rides, don't go messing them up, but when I say modern technology, I mean things like this where vehicles can be pulled off to load and unload. If they could do it with Space Mountain at Disneyland, I do not see why it couldn't be done with Peter Pan.

What I would do is similar to space mountain, when the vehicle reaches the Wheel Chair loading area, the vehicle and track slides over to the side, while there is an empty piece of track that slides into the place of the track that was just removed. In addition what it does when it comes back is they have an empty vehicle and that vehicle slides out, while the wheelchair vehicle slides in, so there is no wait for the "empty location," as when they come back the empty vehicle gets put back into service.

This eliminates the problem of the vehicle not getting back on the track properly, it also would reduce the amount of space that is needed to do this, all you would need to do is move the FP machines to a new location (perhaps inside the gift shop and find a new home for the gift shop). It really wouldn't take that much to do it either, probably about a month downtime at most, and since this method could be used to provide an unlimited amount of time to load, as the ride would continue to operate while loading, there would be no problems with making it a vehicle that a person in a wheelchair could remain in thier chair.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

You cannot compare Space Mountain to Pan. Pan is a continual dispatch ride, whereas Space is not. You would have to be able to get the ride off the track and then put it back on the track while the other ride vehicles remain in motion for this to work.

The easier thing to do would be to make a vehicel that is easier for people with disabilities to board, and fix the ride system so that E-Stops are not so violent. Both Buzz and Haunted (also continual dispatch rides) can be stopped to load guests with disabilities. Pan cannot. It is too old and the stop is too violent. You could possibly get whiplash (never heard of it actually happening) and the sudden stop of the belt will send people flying. The other issue is the elevation of the ride.

Due to the elevation of the ride, Fantasyland CMs are not allowed to evacuate the ride. It must be done by the Fire Department. If you have a person who cannot transfer from their wheelchair and they stop in certain positions, it is going to be next to impossible to get them off of the ride. I was there one day when the ride malfunctioned and stopped. Reedy Creek had to evacuate it, and we had one person who used a wheelchair for mobility who was stopped in the worst possible place for them to Evac him. Thankfully, he was not in his wheelchair so they were able to carry him down. I cannot see them being able to do this for a guest who is in a wheelchair, especially a chair with lots of equipment or a power chair.

I also worry about the weight limits. Many of the more complicated wheelchairs add quite a bit of weight. I do not know of a single suspended ride with a car that can accommodate wheelchairs. Rides that are on the ground can handle more weight, and the consequences of putting too much weight on them are not as bad as they would be on a suspended ride. I would definitely worry about the ability of the track to handle the extra weight of the wheelchair.

 

[cmwade77]

Ok, first yes, you would need to be able to temporarily stop the vehicles in motion, something that should be fairly easy to accomplish. Sorry, here at Disneyland, the vehicles always stop for loading and unloading, we have no moving walkway for Peter Pan.

Secondily, the weight of a manual wheelchair would be no greater than that of a third person, so limit it to one person plus manual wheelchair or to one person in a power chair (as the weight of a power chair would rarely exceed that of two additional people).

Plus, as I recall, they can temporarily stop a vehicle for loading into it, as they have a spot to load without using the moving walkway. Use this space for this, it wouldn't be too hard.

Another option would be to install a creep mode (similar to HM at Disneyland) the difference here is since it is not an omnimover system, the one vheicle can stop, while the rest continue to mvoe at a slower rate, you would only need a few seconds to pull a car out, once out, the ride could resume at a normal pace, then creep mode would be initiatied once again to be able to stop a second car, so that you can replace it with the ADA vehicle.

I understand tat the fire department has to evac the ride, but this method would reduce the possibility of a breakdown caused by someone taking too long to get in and out of the vehicle, something that is far more likely to happen under the current setup than this proposed setup.

 

[SueM in MN]

All I know about Peter Pan is that when DD was still small enough for us to lift her onto Peter Pan, it was not an easy transfer. There is very little room in the load area. The unload area is also very tight, with a wall you could run into if you take too long (unless they changed it since the last time we rode and DH almost ran into that wall carrying DD)
Because of the problems with a stop that Eeyores Butterfly mentioned, the CMs didn't stop the ride for that.